Farming

Posted onDecember 14, 2015byBernie Siegel

Dear Everybody,

I met a guy the other day during one of my Stop & Shop therapy sessions who asked me what I did for a living. I told him I was a farmer. He asked how much land I had to work with. I told him a few inches less than six feet. He was surprised by how little land I had. I told him I wasn’t talking about the ground I lived on, but about the body I lived in.

I really feel that our bodies are the fertile soil with which we can experience growth, and how the fruit of our endeavors affects the health and well-being of others. I truly wonder how many farmers care for their own Mind-Body-Spirit connection at least as much as they do their land, crops, and animals. In the past, I’ve shared the stories of people who are self-destructive, seeming to care very little for nourishing their own lives with love and compassion, but these individuals almost always take wonderful care of their pets.

Think about what you put into your body regularly. Then, think about what some manufacturers put into their food (and other products) that make us vulnerable to disease by lowering our immune system’s ability to protect us.. We do have choices, and if we say we love life, then we really can’t justify using dangerous chemicals to control weeds. It is a huge contradiction to, on one hand say we love life, but on the other, sanction using dangerous chemical weed retardant that shortens that life we say we love so much.

When you love yourself, you are careful about exposures in your environment. For example, you don’t consume large amounts of sugar or contaminated foods. I would compare it to global warming in the sense that we are all in this together. The land belongs to all of humanity. It is what we call home. But unless we all wholeheartedly join together with positive, loving energy to create an endless supply of love and compassion—more than enough for everyone on Earth many times over—we will not have an easy time getting to our natural state of collaboration rather than confrontation.

We are all farming the same land, so be aware of how our choices affect the fertility of other farms and the success of other farmers. My advice to you is to start caring for the land and those who farm it right now. Do something for this beautiful planet Earth that we all share. Believe me, you will blossom and bear fruit when you do something that is life enhancing. Compassion and love are their own rewards for both the giver and the receiver.

I remember a study in which healers were asked to hold water in their hands for a few minutes and give it loving and healing energy. The plants watered by the water the healers treated grew faster than the plants watered with water from the same source, but untreated by the healers. Patients who felt that their doctors were compassionate versus those who felt they were not, recovered faster from the flu. In the same way, we can either poison or heal our planet’s crop of living things. If God is the Master Gardener, then we need only to follow his lead to ensure that there is a never-ending supply of love and compassion for all living things at all times, forever.

You can’t blame God for creating mankind. He needed a crew of farmhands to get the fields plowed and the work done. The problems we have encountered up to this point in our evolutionary journey really began when we started drawing lines and declaring, “That’s my farm, not yours.” Then we further separated ourselves into different varieties of plants, wantingnothing to do with each other, feeling that “our group” was a better representation of the fruit of creation than any of the others.

Here is another project for you. Look at everyone as the Fruit of Life and a product of God’s farmland. Just as you notice the feel of a piece of fruit or a vegetable, and its color and consistency, think of all the people you meet in the same way. You don’t have to like their aroma, taste, color, size, or other characteristics, but you do have to love them for what they are and accept those who do enjoy them. Think of the varieties of food and types of diets on our planet. How many times do you order out to get ethnic food you are not used to preparing but do enjoy eating.

When you get to know people, you will have the same reaction. We all grow up experiencing life in a way that is unique to our heritage and influenced by factors such as how we support ourselves, and whether our learning environment is within or outside of conventional schools, as well as numerous other genetic and epigenetic (environmental) factors. So be aware that you cannot know all the reasons a person you meet might or might not warm up to you right away. Just keep on offering them love, becoming a love warrior, and thus fertilizing the garden with love and compassion. There is no better blend for fertilizing life itself than a mixture of love and compassion.

And then there are those who seem to thrive on the difficulties individuals can encounter during a lifetime. These people exhibit wisdom by letting the difficulties in life become their teachers as they grow towards the light. As Helen Keller said, “If you face the sunshine, you never see the shadows.” I know how good it feels to just sit in the sun for a few minutes and absorb the warmth and energy. Take some time to do that just for you each day, being cognizant of the fact that sunshine comes in many forms—like my wife’s sense of humor during difficult times, which always heals me and helps me grow.

So get off your butt and drive over to your nearest supermarket to enjoy the varieties of fruits and vegetables you will meet walking around there. Ask someone to help you pick out some new foods and teach you how to prepare them. Then, when you get home and try your new discovery, you will experience creation in a personal way. You always have a choice as to whether or not you will like every product from the farm. You don’t have to likeeveryone, but you do have to love them. Giving unconditional love simply means that you do not impose any expectations on the love you offer to others. So give life a try and let me know how it tastes. And if you want to know where this column came from, it is from God knows where, but comes from me to you with a very large helping of unconditional love.

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